P200: Strategic Procurement

Sponsor's Corner

Recently the UC Procurement Services Oakland-based and Center of Excellence (COE) staff had an All-Hands meeting. I enjoyed witnessing how the team worked in small group exercises to resolve challenges in communication, change management and program implementation. It gave me a deep appreciation for the determination, creativity and enthusiasm that is displayed in our daily work within UC. We have come a long way since the inception of P200 and have many reasons to be proud. Now that fiscal year 2014-15 has come to a close, we can celebrate the past year’s many accomplishments including:

Our accomplishments have resulted in an astounding $169.7 million in savings!

Innovation and collaboration drive these results. But they do not come without challenges. Oakland-based staff is working closely with campus administration and HR to address imbalances created when we overlay a virtual staffing model on local campus classification and compensation structures. Campus-based staff is working hard to find work areas for virtual staff and incorporate them in the local culture.

As we move into the new fiscal year, in addition to addressing these or other challenges, our results will depend on our ability to: establish and utilize new systemwide contracts, expand strategic sourcing opportunities in “non-traditional” categories and increase the effectiveness of our procurement operations. We look forward to expanding our COEs, enhancing our procurement skills, evaluating and launching additional technology solutions, fully integrating UC Central Travel and UC Card Programs into UC Procurement Services, and most importantly, continuing to embed our deliverables into an operational system.

Our remarkable year-over-year success gives me complete confidence that we will continue to execute at an incredibly high level and, once again, have a stellar year. I am looking forward to it —